Carmine Agnello made estranged wife Victoria Gotti an offer she could refuse in divorce court – so the judge settled the issue yesterday, ordering him to pay her $17,500 a month in support.

But Gotti’s financial victory was hollow, since Agnello’s assets are frozen while he awaits trial on federal charges of racketeering, extortion and tax fraud.

Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Ira Raab said that, until the criminal case is resolved and a final divorce pact is hammered out, Agnello could satisfy his ruling by paying only $581.39 in monthly support.

It wasn’t clear where Agnello would get the $70,000 he was ordered to pay in back mortgage payments on the couple’s $5 million Long Island mansion.

A source said there have been no mortgage payments made since last summer and that Gotti could lose the Old Westbury estate unless substantial payment on the $81,190 debt is made soon.

The couple’s next court date is scheduled for October.

Agnello netted one emotional victory: the right to see their three kids while he’s in jail.

His lawyer, Ken Weinstein, had argued Gotti wasn’t letting him see or speak to them.

“My client is very upset,” Weinstein told the judge. “He has not seen his children in six weeks. They have caller ID on the phone,” and do not pick up when he calls from jail, he said.

The judge ordered Gotti to take Carmine, 14, John, 13, and Frank, 10, to visit Agnello once a week at the Brooklyn House of Detention, and to allow them to talk to their dad on the phone every day.

A source said Gotti had spent the past few days with her kids visiting her cancer-stricken “Dapper Don” dad, John Gotti, in federal prison in Springfield, Mo., and was told of the divorce ruling when they returned home yesterday.

She had originally sought $30,000 a month in support. Agnello’s lawyer then offered $16,000 a month.

But that proposal fell through, prompting Raab’s ruling.

Agnello, king of a scrap-metal empire, once pulled in $34,000 a month from his business.

As part of the temporary agreement, the judge ordered Agnello to pay $3,070 a week in maintenance and $1,000 a week in support, as well as provide medical, dental and other health insurance for Gotti and their kids.

He also must take out a life-insurance policy on himself of “not less than $1 million,” naming Gotti as the beneficiary.

The judge ruled that Gotti, a best-selling novelist, could keep her white Mercedes sedan and Lincoln Navigator, but she will have to pay for her own gas, oil, repairs and insurance.

Gotti filed for divorce last year, after federal surveillance tapes suggested Agnello was having an affair with his secretary.